Sean Spicer, the incoming White House Press Secretary for Donald Trump, opened up the President-elect's first press conference by bashing the news organizations who published the unverified reports on information allegedly obtained by Russia.

NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump denounced a purported Russian intelligence report on him as “fake news” Wednesday and asserted that he would be tough on Vladimir Putin despite reports that the Russian president used a computer hacking campaign to try to get him elected.

“It's all fake news. It’s phony stuff. It didn’t happen,” he said. “I read what was released, and I think it’s a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace."

Trump spoke to more than 250 journalists in the lobby of Trump Tower on Wednesday in the first full news conference since his election as president.

As reporters in the packed lobby vied for the right to ask questions, Trump was by turns assertive and defiant, often taking shots at his news coverage. Things turned downright testy when CNN tried to ask and failed to get Trump to answer a question. "Your organization is terrible," he told CNN's Jim Acosta. You are fake news."

In a wide-ranging 58-minute news conference, Trump also outlined his plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with a new health insurance law "almost simultaneously." He reiterated his plan to have Mexico reimburse the United States for the cost of building a border wall. And his attorney outlined plans for Trump to remove himself from the day-to-day operations of his real estate empire, even while maintaining ownership and having family members run it.

The president-elect was introduced by incoming press secretary Sean Spicer, who denounced reports by CNN and BuzzFeed about Russian intelligence on Trump. Spicer called BuzzFeed “a left wing blog” that was hostile to Trump’s campaign and said the report was a “sad and pathetic attempt to get clicks.”

Trump denied that there was any dirt for Russian intelligence agencies to have on him, saying he tells people while traveling overseas to be on their best behavior, even in the privacy of their hotel rooms. “Be careful, because you don’t want to see yourself on television. Cameras all over the place."

Apparently referring to a specific sexual allegation, Trump said: "I’m also very much of a germophobe, by the way ... Believe me.”

The president also discussed plans involving industrial policy, drug prices and defense contracts. He vowed to be "the greatest jobs producer that God ever created."

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President-elect Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, step off a plane upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Jan. 19, 2017, ahead of the inauguration. Here's a look back at his career and presidential campaign.
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Donald Trump, right, waits with his brother Robert for the start of a Casino Control Commission meeting in Atlantic City on March 29, 1990. Trump was seeking final approval for the Taj Mahal Casino Resort, one of the world's largest casino complexes.
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Donald Trump stands next to a genie lamp as the lights of his Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort light up the evening sky marking the grand opening of the venture in Atlantic City on April 5, 1990.
Mike Derer, AP

Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump watch as the ceremonial starter hits to start the first round of the WGC-Cadillac Championship golf tournament at TPC Blue Monster at Trump National Doral on March 5, 2015, in Miami.
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Trump holds up documents from a poll that shows him running in second place among Republican candidates as he speaks at a meeting of the City Club of Chicago on June 29, 2015.
Tannen Maury, European Pressphoto Agency

Trump delivers the keynote address at the Genesee and Saginaw Republican Party Lincoln Day Event on Aug. 11, 2015, in Birch Run, Mich., his first campaign event since his Republican debate debut.
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Trump fields a question from Univision and Fusion anchor Jorge Ramos during a press conference held before his campaign event at the Grand River Center on Aug. 25, 2015, in Dubuque, Iowa. Earlier in the press conference Trump had Ramos removed from the room.
Scott Olson

Trump asks a supporter, Mary Margaret Bannister, check to see whether his hair is real during his speech to supporters at a rally at the TD Convention Center on Aug. 27, 2015, in Greenville, S.C
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Trump and his family attend an arrival event with Gov. Mike Pence and his family at the Great Lakes Science Center on July 20, 2016, in Cleveland during the GOP convention.
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Tax returns

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President-elect Donald Trump shot down questions of releasing his tax returns, telling reporters on Tuesday that 'he became president' and that the American people don't care about his returns. (Jan. 11)
AP

Trump also again refused to release his tax returns, saying "as you know, they're under audit."

Reporters are the only ones interested in the tax returns, Trump added, and he did not think his refusal had any effect on the election.

"I won," Trump said as supporters in the lobby clapped and cheered. "I became president."

Trump and aides also announced he will put his business interests in a "trust," but not a blind one — he will turn operations over to his sons and current executives, with yet-to-be-named ethics compliance officers to monitor the arrangement.

Ethics attorneys had called on Trump to create a totally blind trust in which he would sell assets and have an independent executor manage the assets.

Affordable Care Act

The President-elect says the Republican party 'doesn't want to own' Obamacare. He says the repeal and replace transition will happen 'essentially simultaneously'.

Trump said he wants to see Republicans develop their own health care plan as soon as possible and simultaneously replace Obamacare with it, because the current system is imploding.

"Obamacare is the Democrats problem," Trump said. "We are gonna take the problem off the shelves for them. We're doing them a tremendous service by doing it. We could sit back and let them hang with it. We are doing the Democrats a great service."

The president also:

• Praised Cabinet nominees Rex Tillerson and Jeff Sessions as "brilliant" in their Senate confirmation hearings, and claimed he has "one of the great Cabinets ever put together."

• Said has met with "numerous" U.S. Supreme Court candidates — from a "list of 20" — and will probably announce a nominee "within two weeks" of his Jan. 20 inauguration.

•- Stuck to his claim that Mexico will reimburse the United States for a wall along their border, either by a "tax" or a "payment," though the latter is less likely. He added: "it's not a fence — it's a wall."

Mexico has vowed not to pay for such a wall.

The press conference was in the same marbled and gold-plated lobby on Fifth Avenue where Trump announced his campaign 19 months ago. A blue curtain hung behind Trump, obscuring the elevators that have transported scores of office-seekers to their meetings with the president-elect. Trump was flanked by members of his family and top aides, with enough supporters in the lobby to provide a cheering section for some of Trump's more colorful remarks.

Trump concluded by pointing to a table stacked with legal documents related to his many partnerships, saying he would turn the running of his businesses over to his sons and hope they do a good job.

Sean Spicer, the incoming White House Press Secretary for Donald Trump, opened up the President-elect's first press conference by bashing the news organizations who published the unverified reports on information allegedly obtained by Russia.